Office Depot Rejects Staples Offer

Perhaps sensing that the third time would not, indeed, be the charm, Office Depot’s parent company, ODP Corp., issued a letter rejecting the acquisition offer by Staples’ parent company. The letter, signed by ODP Chairman Joseph S. Vassalluzzo, cited potential regulatory issues – the two previous attempts, after all, were shot down due to antitrust concerns and the landscape has not gotten any more competitive since.

Vassalluzzo instead offered, “We are open to combining our retail and consumer-facing ecommerce operations with Staples under the right set of circumstances and on mutually acceptable terms.” Reportedly, Staples’ interest was only in the retail and customer facing portions of the business anyway, and it had planned to divest the B2B business unit – which is something worth keeping an eye on.